Kuwait Government Issues Warning as 1,000 Sites Found Illegally Mining Cryptocurrency

The Kuwait Ministry of Inside has issued a warning towards cryptocurrency mining, after electrical energy utilization knowledge indicated that over 1,000 places within the Gulf nation could also be operating mining rigs.

Crypto mining has been unlawful in Kuwait since July 2023, when the Capital and Markets Authority issued a round banning all cryptocurrency exercise, together with transfers and buying and selling.

The detection of irregular electrical energy utilization has led the Ministry of Inside to reaffirm this ban, writing in an announcement that mining is an “unlicensed exercise and a direct violation of the county’s regulation.”

But Kuwait has a number of the lowest electrical energy costs on the earth, and it appears that evidently the comparatively low price of vitality is an excessive amount of of an enticement for some residents, with the federal government highlighting a number of destructive outcomes.

Because the Ministry writes, “[mining] additionally causes energy outages in residential, industrial and repair areas, in a means which poses a risk to public security and disrupts offering common important providers.”

The governmental division—which is chargeable for policing and public safety—additionally used its warning to name on “violators to promptly rectify their stances,” threatening prosecution “in accordance with relevant legal guidelines” in the event that they fail to take action.

The warning from the Ministry of Inside is a part of a joint effort with a number of different governmental companies, together with the Ministry of Electrical energy, Water and Renewable Vitality, which has additionally been capable of establish extraordinarily excessive electrical energy utilization in 100 houses within the Al-Wafra area.

In keeping with the Ministry’s spokesperson, Fatima Jawhar Hayat, the flagged houses show persistently and abnormally excessive utilization 24 hours a day, which is not like the fluctuating patterns typical of houses.

“In some circumstances, consumption exceeded 100,000 kilowatt-hours throughout March 2025—practically 20 occasions the everyday utilization of neighboring houses,” she mentioned.

It’s not clear what has occurred to the occupants of the 100 recognized houses, but Hayat added that the Ministry will proceed monitoring electrical energy consumption all through Kuwait.

In keeping with the Cambridge Bitcoin Electrical energy Consumption Index, Kuwait accounted for 0.05% of Bitcoin’s whole hashrate in 2022, one yr earlier than its monetary regulator banned cryptocurrency mining.

Whereas there isn’t any dependable knowledge on crypto possession in Kuwait for the reason that 2023 ban, there may be proof that the Kuwaiti public continues to commerce digital belongings.

Most just lately, a fraudulent token known as Bitcoin Kuwait resulted in retail traders shedding round $40 million, after it collapsed in worth nearly instantly after launching in January.

This fraud was the topic of public complaints by researcher Dr. Safaa Zaman on X, who highlighted the dearth of enforcement of Kuwait’s ban on cryptocurrency actions, and who known as for laws to strengthen the federal government’s stance on crypto.

She wrote, “The place is the oversight, the place is the laws, and the place is the fraudster?”